jdreyer wrote on Nov 28, 2016, 01:26:The thing I'll give Star Citizen is they've been pretty transparent about what they're building (including massive scope creep), and they've provided demos along the way. That's where HG fell down, IMO. They (Sean?) tried to leave the gameplay a mystery, so people filled those unknown spaces with their hopes and dreams. Then when it came out, people were pretty disappointed that their idea of what they thought the game was didn't match reality.

This. Chris Roberts has been completely open about the development of Star Citizen, making clear that features may changed as the game develops and setting realistic expectations. For instance, planets were originally going to be quite limited and there would be a cutscene transition from space to the planet - only when the procedural generation technology came along, which was a stretch goal, did they show that planets will be fully explorable and demo the transition. Meanwhile the drop-in-drop-out co-op that was originally promised has changed to co-op missions due to the increase in fidelity of the campaign. There are also regular free-fly weeks where people can try the game out for themselves. The only thing that can be held against CIG is that they're bad at communicating delays.

Sean Murry, on the otherhand, was stating or intimating features would be included with No Man's Sky right up until release and withheld review copies right up until the release. He made no attempt to correct the record. There was also no in-depth gameplay walkthroughs ahead of release and no demo. Everything was done to project a deep and involved game when the reality was it was shallow and repetitive.

Gamers have a right to be presented with accurate information and NMS was a blatant case of false advertising. People are right to keep bringing it up, as the game is still nowhere close to what was promised. The thing is with realistic expectations NMS would still have sold well and there wouldn't have been the same backlash against it. There was simply no excuse or logic behind what they did.

grudgebearer wrote on Nov 21, 2016, 12:23:So there's a playable alpha of the PSU and Squadron 42 already? Or are you considering the hanger module, Arena Commander, and social module on par with an actual alpha ?

Delivering (in the processing of giving) is different to delivered (has already given). I shouldn't have to teach you basic English just to have a discussion about this. What we've seen and got to play is in excess of what was originally promised. Only if CIG goes bankrupt and is unable to complete the development is there an issue but funding is at record levels. The original pitch was for five ships (Aurora, Hornet, 300i, Freelancer and Constellation) - all of those are flyable, along with the Mustang, M50, Gladius, Cutlass, Avenger, Gladiator, Starfarer, Retaliator, Scythe, Glaive, P-52 Merlin, Khartu Al, Vanguard, Reliant, Sabre and Argo, with the Caterpillar, Herald and 85X due in the next patch in the next few weeks.

Not only that but the fidelity is dramatically beyond what was originally promised. And in the next patch we get Star Marine, which is the first-person combat element of the game - that's something that was originally a stretch goal. Is the game taking longer than was originally estimated? Absolutely, but the reason is the increased funding and scope of the game. As an original backer I support what CIG is doing.

Go back and look at the original pledge - it looks awful in comparison to what we're able to play now and what's coming up soon.

grudgebearer wrote on Nov 21, 2016, 12:23:The fact that CIG is selling people on hope, does not mean he's doing something "right" in terms of software development, just that he's doing something right in terms of fundraising.

It's a crowdfunded game. The way it works is that people pay money AHEAD of time and fund development of the game. If you fail to grasp the fundamental business model then there's really nothing to discuss.

I hope those idiots lose so bad and owe enormous amounts of money in lawyer fees. They want, I'm guessing, tons of money from Chipotle just because they are too stupid to realize that there is no way a burrito with all of those things in it can be 300 calories. No common sense AT ALL. I have not seen the sign advertising the chorizo, but most likely it's very clear the 300 calorie claim is for the chorizo not a whole burrito.

I strongly disagree. Based on the picture posted here it seems as if they're promoting it as being 300 calories when it is actually dramatically more. If so then the lawsuit is absolutely justified. Sleazy businesses need to be held to account when they mislead customers.

grudgebearer wrote on Nov 21, 2016, 10:04:In the end this will be more of a 'bait and switch' scheme. They are selling everyone on product A, but what will be released will actually be product B. It will fulfill all of the requirements for delivering a product for the Kickstarter rules, but won't be anything close to what was promised.

CIG is delivering far in excess of what was promised in the original Kickstarter. Further, the vast majority of backers came in after the Kickstarter. It's fair enough to criticise the delays but when the end result is going to be substantially better most people are fine with that - in fact CIG continues to attract large numbers of new backers and additional funds.

We get it, Star Citizen isn't for you. But clearly it is for a lot of other people and given that they continue to contribute more money into the project CIG must be doing something right.

Slick wrote on Nov 16, 2016, 17:38:It would be nice to read one of these "fuck EA" threads without all the hyperbole for once.

I think the comments have been completely reasonable. EA keeps fucking up PC gaming with its shameless money grabs and diminishing feature sets. What's the point in renting servers when you have effectively no control over them? It's ridiculous.

Beamer wrote on Nov 9, 2016, 14:23:Couldn't disagree more. I felt like they took out the good from the game and left bare bones that were really, really bare. On top of it, the plot felt less throwback and more generic, and the decision to go with an eye-searing red sky with pink and purple details wasn't fun. That was usually 5 minutes in an 80s movie, not a full 5 hours.

I adore FC3/FC4. Found this to be mostly just boring.

Agreed. I loved the settling of Blood Dragon but the gameplay was shallow and it got tedious rather quickly. That's in stark contrast to FC3/FC4, which were really compelling and replayable.

I use Start10 to replace the default Start Menu. Microsoft desperately needs to hire some decent artists and designers, as it's pretty obvious the icons were designed by talentless managers who've never used a graphic design program before.

Theo wrote on Nov 8, 2016, 12:18:In this case its not microsofts fault the UWP platform supports playing with other PC's (and xbox's for that matter); activision chose not to include it. Microsoft also offered up the refunds with no stress straight up with no fuss and next to no internet prompting.

but its cooler to troll MS right? who needs the truth?

Microsoft should refuse to allow the game on the platform without PC support or at the very least warn people on the store page. Imagine buying a pair of scissors only to find out they don't cut 99% of paper. As it stands it's not acceptable to simply offer a refund after the fact.

You'd have to be an idiot to buy anything from the Windows Store. Seriously, it took me three weeks to be able to download and play Gears of War 4 because of issues with downloading the game and installing it. Part of it related to a four year old buy where the Windows Store doesn't create a folder it needs, causing the update to fail.

What astonishes me is that the Windows Store version won't support play with the Steam version. In PC gaming that's unprecedented but sadly not surprising given this is Microsoft we're talking about.

Qbex . wrote on Nov 8, 2016, 04:31:finally a way to filter store items - "3 tags to seen less off"piss off - moba, free to play , early accessthis is a good update

upper right corner of featured bar-> small tooltip down arrow -> preferences

or settings/ account details / preferences

Well, that's an improvement though it's a shame to limit it to just three.

Personally I'm not a fan of the new design, though it's better than the previous one. It still shows me too much content I have zero interest in and it's hard to see the relevant content. And there are so many sales they just become noise - 440 products on sale this week and it's not even a big sale.

If Valve wants to get developers onboard then it should be provided support to developers and pushing for a simultaneous launch. Valve makes huge amounts of money from Steam, which would easily pay for a team of Linux specialists to assist developers. That's how nVidia gets developers to incorporate Gamesworks features.

Right now SteamOS is just a novelty that has little in the way of backing. Valve needs to ensure that at least 75% of AAA releases are available for SteamOS to make it at all credible.

Decent trailer but I'll wait for the reviews on this one. I loved the original but I'm concerned whether it will be fresh enough to entice me, as the footage I've seen so far looks very similar to the original. I also wish YouTube didn't have such shitty video quality, as it tends to make all video game footage look washed out and blurry.

I backed Wasteland 2 during the Kickstarter and gave it a go when it was released but have to say I was rather underwhelmed. The game felt like it was designed in the 90s and not in a nostalgic sort of way.

Still, I wish them every success with it. Clearly there's a market for a sequel.

I'm glad that Valve is finally cracking down on this, as some publishers are noticeably worse than others at representing their games. It sounds like Valve is preparing for an overhaul of the store, which is much needed.

I find I don't buy as many games on Steam these days because the store page is a nightmare to navigate and the sales aren't what they used to be. The library could also do with an overhaul, as the UI is very dated.

Prez wrote on Oct 29, 2016, 15:58:My suspicion is that Microsoft is using the fact that there was considerable opposition to Steam and Origin that later subsided as those platforms improved tremendously as a model as to why they are stubbornly sticking to their guns on this. The problem with this is that MS apparently still has no clue how to serve the PC audience.

If it thought it could just plough past the opposition it wouldn't have killed off GFWL. The Windows Store has no download scheduler or limiter, doesn't allow installs to specific folders, encrypts downloads with DRM to restrict modding and customisation, has serious issues with resuming downloads, it horribly designed and is being forced upon people.

Prez wrote on Oct 29, 2016, 15:58:I had Windows 10 until I reformatted and reinstalled Windows 8.1 and I am in no hurry to go back to 10. I want to play Gears 4 but not enough to use Windows 10 or the godawful Winstore.

Windows 10 is the most fully featured OS, which is why I still use it. However, the interface looks like it was designed by executives - there's no way that Microsoft has even a single artist working in its UI team. The Action Centre and Settings app are abominations.

I'd love to see Valve or Google make a serious attempt at the desktop market, as Microsoft's utter lack of competition has resulted in it becoming extremely complacent. At first I didn't mind Windows 10 but now I despise it. Every update seems to make it was. What twathead decided that UAC prompts should appear BEHIND the window you're using - I'm often sitting there thinking the app hasn't loaded, only to find a UAC prompt hiding away. The Windows 10 Anniversary Update is appalling.